Deleted text messages recovered by a federal investigator reveal that top UAW officials conspired to strip the union’s Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock of her responsibilities—and celebrated their success afterward, comparing it to “dunking” on a basketball opponent.
The court-appointed monitor overseeing the UAW, lawyer Neil Barofsky, uncovered the communications after union officials had attempted to delete them.
The messages show that UAW President Shawn Fain’s Chief of Staff Chris Brooks and Communications Director Jonah Furman coordinated the scheme, then bragged about its “flawless” execution.
In a text sent to then-Communications Director Furman after the union’s International Executive Board voted to strip Mock of her responsibilities, then-Chief of Staff Brooks wrote:
“My strategy was flawless this week. Like everything went perfectly to plan . . . it feels really good. Like how [I] imagine it feels to epically dunk on another player in basketball.”
Furman responded with a heart emoji.
The messages were part of more than 400 documents eventually produced by the union after initially being withheld from investigators. The monitor found that many messages had been selectively deleted from officials’ phones—including at least 123 text messages from President Fain’s devices covering critical time periods under investigation.
The monitor’s report reveals they spent weeks planning the attack on Mock.
On January 3, 2024, Brooks texted Fain that he and Furman thought “it would be most strategic to bring a list of issues regarding the [Secretary-Treasurer]’s office to the Board, so the media buy in Chattanooga is not seen in isolation, but as part of a larger problem.”
The text messages show that Brooks did a “whole rewrite” of the Compliance Director’s report, inserting accusations that were inflammatory.
The Federal Monitor reported that, after their plan succeeded, Brooks and Furman discussed their new power over the departments taken from Mock.
The monitor found that neither President Fain nor the former Compliance Director could credibly explain why relevant text messages were missing from their phones.
The Compliance Director’s phone was missing all messages between November 25, 2023, and March 23, 2024—precisely the period covering the planning and execution of the scheme against Mock.
The messages in question appeared to have been individually selected for deletion rather than removed by clearing entire conversation threads.
Following the release of the monitor’s report, Brooks resigned from the UAW. Furman was demoted and suspended without pay for two weeks.
The former Compliance Director had previously resigned after being confronted with evidence that she had deleted material text messages.
Secretary-Treasurer Mock’s responsibilities have since been restored.
The Federal Monitor was appointed as part of a consent decree by the U.S. District Court following widespread corruption that sent two former UAW presidents to federal prison for stealing union funds and taking bribes.